tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71535624636000562322024-02-21T04:32:39.474-07:00My Strings, Connections and LinksMy ongoing collection of varied content about the Built Environment.
Architecture, Construction, Facility Management, Management theories related to light weight theories and Wicked Problems.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-66943526544126232432016-11-03T23:04:00.002-07:002016-11-03T23:04:45.031-07:00Gondolas for DC? How about Tucson<a href="http://dc.curbed.com/2016/11/3/13508238/georgetown-rosslyn-gondola-study" target="_blank">Georgetown and DC could be connected via sky trams</a><div>
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What's good for the goose is often good for the gander, or so goes the saying. A recent study commissioned by local business and transportation authority members shows a sky tram to be one of the only feasible methods of getting a public transport option to Georgetown, VA from DC. </div>
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While it's an interesting option for DC and Georgetown residents, many of the same drivers present in the congested cities around the Beltway exist in what some would say is a sleepy town called Tucson, Arizona. Tucson is one of the last bastions of a "no freeway town" in America. the NIMBY contingent has successfully fought off neighborhood divisions created by multi-lane freeways, but at the expense of getting across a large expanse of low-density development. Over 20 miles of east to west travel in town often takes over 45 minutes to traverse creating more pollution and congestion and delay in getting business done and inconvenience in daily activities. </div>
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Tucson might want to take a page out of the DC and Georgetown playbooks and look at one of the easiest and least expensive mass transit modalities that exist. it's also one of the most inexpensive to operate and just might be able to be operated mostly on solar electricity so it would be one of the cleanest public transportation projects in the US. </div>
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Call us crackpots or crazy or just plain nuts, but take a few minutes and give this some serious thought. Tucson could have the best of both worlds. No freeways, great and inexpensive public transport and cleaner air and a great tourist attraction all in the same system, All at a lower cost than what was recently spent on a few miles of light rail. Food for thought.....</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-66125198385078059052016-10-06T10:26:00.001-07:002016-10-06T10:26:49.513-07:00IoT and Lightinghttp://www.archlighting.com/industry/reports/smart-shopping_o<br />
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The Internet of Things or IoT is getting more and more pervasive. Here's an idea you might not have thought of. Using LED lights to help you navigate inside a store.<br />
Phillips decided about 10 years ago they were going to be a leader in the LED space and to do that they have been working with how to leverage the special characteristics of LED lighting. One of those special characteristics is the ability to pulse the light in specific ways. One of those ways is to allow lights to create specific communication patterns that aren't perceptible to our human eyes but are perceptible to technology. It turns out our smartphones can detect these light patterns when we load an app and point our phones to the ceiling.<br />
Phillips and other vendors are developing applications that can direct us to within inches of a specific location inside a space. Which means, if we decide to participate, the store can let us know about other merchandise we might be interested in, help us navigate the store more quickly, (for us guys, getting in and out is a good thing) and even helping those who have special needs, when they need it.<br />
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This is just another way the IoT's are enriching our lives and enhancing our built environment. If this is interesting or you have a thought, leave it below. Let's start a conversation about how tech and the space you live in works together. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-58211630881467791312016-10-03T13:06:00.001-07:002016-10-03T13:07:53.634-07:00Designers IoT comes to your world, today!<br />
<a href="http://www.smartbrief.com/s/2016/09/arduinos-diy-kit-turns-anything-iot-device-0" target="_blank">Arduino's DIY kit turns anything into an IoT device </a><br />
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The
opensource folks at Arduino have created a developer's toolkit that
anyone can use to create devices that connect via the internet. Yes your
own DIY IoT toolkit. Your own DIY baby monitor, cat monitor or exercise
and location monitor. For a modest fee they will sell you all the
parts to create a unique DIY monitor that looks at temperature,
moisture, voice, location, stress, activity or other inputs in
combination with each other to come up with unique ways to determine if
something happens and then record that event and notify you of it, if
you like.<br />
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So how does this effect the Built
Environment? So now I can create simple and easy to prototype energy and
activity sensors for specific activities in a space. I can determine if
someone visits a space, and when they visit it and for how long. Does
their presence coincide with the sunlight or another environmental
aspect of the space?<br />
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As designers, we are always
wondering if our ideas work or not. Now we can begin to think about how
people can interact with the space and get immediate feedback from our
ideas. Now we can create flexible experiments about how people and space
work together or not. IoT becomes a design lab.<br />
<a href="https://ksr-video.imgix.net/projects/2630911/video-708062-h264_high.mp4" target="_blank">Watch their video</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-56372536824822240552016-03-01T13:33:00.000-07:002016-03-01T13:34:24.889-07:00Rural Cities and Towns Get noticed. http://rural-design.org/blog<br />
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Rural has a future. Small towns have long-standing relevance in growing
food, raising livestock, processing foods, producing natural resources
and protecting the environment. That relevance is never going to go away
as long as we need food, utilize natural resources and care about our
environment. <br />
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<a href="http://rural-design.org/blog/didnt-read-rural-dying-article">http://rural-design.org/blog/didnt-read-rural-dying-article</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-80088388242436641252014-11-03T23:23:00.001-07:002014-11-03T23:29:31.758-07:00In celebration of my extended Hiatus I just had to Send this Along<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><u><b>Not As Green As He's Cabbage looking!</b></u></span><br />
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<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>A proud and confident genius makes a </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>bet with an idiot. </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>The genius says, </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>"Hey idiot, every question I ask you </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>that you don't know the answer, you
</b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>have to give me $5. And if you ask me </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>a question and I can't answer yours </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>I will give you $5,000." </b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>The idiot says, </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>"Okay." </b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>The genius then asks, </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>"How many continents are there in the world?" </b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>The idiot doesn't know and hands over the $5. </b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>The idiot says, </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>"Now me ask: what animal stands with two </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>legs but sleeps with three?" </b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>The genius tries and searches very hard </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>for the answer but gives up and hands </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>over the $5000. </b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>The genius says, </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>"Dang it, I lost. By the way, what was </b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>the answer to your question?" </b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>The idiot hands over $5. </b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><i><b>:)</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Just goes to show it's not the answers that count, but the questions.</b></span></span></span></h3>
<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Please feel free to pass this one along, that is if you feel so inclined, don't put yourself out, just pass it along I know you will feel better if you do. Really. </span></span></span></span><i><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></b></i></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-6834362307797603902014-01-22T13:48:00.000-07:002014-01-22T13:48:12.978-07:00Renewable Energy Continues to Grow<div class="bb_articlemax_detail_standard_title">
Buildings Magazine recently published an article "<a href="http://www.buildings.com/article-details/articleid/16767/title/renewable-energy-surges-ahead.aspx?topic=531&utm_source=KnowledgeMarketing&utm_medium=NEWSLETTERS&utm_term=GREENER%20FACILITIES&utm_content=2014_01_22_BLD_Greener%20Facilities&utm_campaign=Biofuels%20-%20A%20Growing%20Energy%20Alternative&eid=211389375&bid=807247" target="_blank">Renewable Energy Surges Ahead</a>" which indicated that wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and hydropower are giving coal and natural gas a run for their money. While that may be good news on the surface the total percentage of renewable energy production is still is only 11.2% of total generation for 2012. </div>
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While this is laudable and an important step for renewable energy, the important fact I saw was that over the report period of 2000 to 2012 renewable energy accounted for 56% of all new generation capacity. That in itself is pretty astounding. Most of that is reportedly from wind and PV solar.</div>
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These are impressive numbers, but for all the increased capacity from renewable sources, commercial buildings are only getting about 1% of their power needs from renewable sources. More reform needs to be done at the legal organization level of power generation. Many states regulate power generation for the benefit of large, centralized power companies. Most of their new generation from clean sources have come from large wind and solar farms at some distance from the consumer of power. This continues to perpetuate the centralized generation paradigm they are most familiar with. So much so, in some western states there is a movement from the utilities to stop roof-top solar PV installations because they say it is an unfair advantage to the homeowner to use their distribution systems without any cost. The reality of these arguments is that it really makes the utility distribution systems more effective and reduces the overall transmission energy losses because as the energy comes in from one house it can be immediately used by a neighbor close by. </div>
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If distributed, clean energy is ever to work effectively our state governments are going to have to realize distributed energy production is in everyone's best interest, including the power generation companies. As the markets and technolgy change, so our utilities are being called on to change and grow too. </div>
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If you support clean energy production and more sustainable power generation, then you should be in support of all generation, recovery, and conservation opportunities. One of those is to allow small groups of individuals and companies to form local power cooperatives which reduce transmission losses by generating power close to the point of use and encourage local diversity at the neighborhood level, rather than relying on singular power generation sources. That diversity also provides greater security and reliability for all users. </div>
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To gain this benefit we have to change the state laws and regulations on the formation of utilities and power cooperatives. The large utilities don't want to give up their regional monopolies they have held for decades, but it's time we moved ahead and looked seriously and thoroughly at the benefits and risks involved with distributed, multi-source power generation. Write your state legislators about this issue and help them learn about the benefits of distributed power generation in your state. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0Benson, AZ 85602, USA32.1500959 -110.3785437999999930.425484399999995 -112.9603308 33.8747074 -107.79675679999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-34719972798402111282014-01-17T07:59:00.000-07:002014-01-17T08:30:08.536-07:00Google and your eyes, Round 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl4Xdu0ZqXpGO76vPvlU6N2QiMQnlWLYIrtpH9dk8UiadDAqMxF9HNPQm2gr3j_-5FMpGR-ZPzBT5dpbxXMu527X48P8L1T-6LclPsP8CpjY3X0UfFrmxym8QwUdvep-BANmDSRGWRWlKD/s1600/infographic-GoogleContact.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl4Xdu0ZqXpGO76vPvlU6N2QiMQnlWLYIrtpH9dk8UiadDAqMxF9HNPQm2gr3j_-5FMpGR-ZPzBT5dpbxXMu527X48P8L1T-6LclPsP8CpjY3X0UfFrmxym8QwUdvep-BANmDSRGWRWlKD/s1600/infographic-GoogleContact.jpg" height="232" width="320" /></a></div>
Good news for those of our population who suffer from diabetes. Google X, the secret "skunkworks" development lab at Google unveiled a prototype of a medical device which gives diabetics the ability to know their glucose levels without a prick to test blood.<br />
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Recode's article <a href="http://recode.net/2014/01/16/inside-google-xs-smart-contact-lens/" target="_blank">Inside Google X’s Smart Contact Lens</a> is interesting on several levels.<br />
(<a href="http://mystringlinks.blogspot.com/2013/08/formula-1-babies-and-buildings-string.html" target="_blank">See related article on Hospital Monitoring</a>) </div>
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First, point of interest is the breadth of interest Google seems to have in our lives. </div>
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Second, all of these interests are tied to data about how we live</div>
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Third, they seem to be able to move beyond the traditional technology platform form factors, reversing the Moore's Law paradigm from bigger, faster, less cost to smaller, efficient, cost less important.</div>
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So this seems to be the second round of Google using our eyes as a portal to our lives. First it was Google Glasses and now the diabetic monitor contact lens. The old saying that our "eyes are the windows to our soul," may have some significance when it comes to devices which monitor the use we put to our eyes. Google glasses could be used to control our environment around us by turning lights on and off around us or controlling heating and cooling equipment by noticing our activity levels and location within a structure. Even working with our cars to help them make it safer for us to use the road by integrating our steering decisions with where we have looked just prior to the decision to change direction with a vehicle. </div>
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Sensing the nature of our bodily functions and performance opens a new gateway to the brave new world of implanted sensors to augment our sensory perceptions, memory and even how we interact with each other socially.</div>
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Many of you know I'm often a proponent of advancing technology, just as long as it is a beneficial and safe tool for our lives. Yet, this being said, there are often unintended consequences for these seemingly benign tools. So, while I applaud the efforts of ex-professor Brian Otis from the University of Washington, I'm also wary of how any corporate entity would use and protect such sensitive personal data about me, should I decide to use such a device. </div>
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It is up to all of us to continue our education and raise our awareness of how our technological world both benefits us and puts at risk while delivering those desired benefits.<br />
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<a href="http://mystringlinks.blogspot.com/2013/07/hospitals-and-barcalounger-what.html" target="_blank">Also see a related article on the transformation of hospital care delivery when remote monitoring is added. </a> </div>
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<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This article is based on information appearing to be reliable. It is a continuing thread of ideas about the connections of ideas which link seemingly unrelated ideas and technology as strings of connected realities.</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-46618686088640154412014-01-14T08:17:00.000-07:002014-01-17T08:22:55.945-07:00Goolgle Takes Big Step in AEC World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoKvc3cXHLuTBtKsSmhld79f3AF282_bXBmD1wF44Te6iQN6rQQLOKihNiFVPcJk9LPnx14UYjNzyCL19ujzCJGsCWUDUt3W0AFxqBo-6KtZwQcV36GYGoiTPMDNJ19VvR4tOHlVo1KmlW/s1600/NestThermostat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoKvc3cXHLuTBtKsSmhld79f3AF282_bXBmD1wF44Te6iQN6rQQLOKihNiFVPcJk9LPnx14UYjNzyCL19ujzCJGsCWUDUt3W0AFxqBo-6KtZwQcV36GYGoiTPMDNJ19VvR4tOHlVo1KmlW/s1600/NestThermostat.jpg" /></a></div>
Google may be your favorite search engine, but they just took another step into another part of your life, well that is if you have a Nest thermostat in your home. Google understands the conservation of power on the grid is one way we can help create a more sustainable environment, so the Nest programmable / learning thermostat is a logical acquisition for them. Besides it gives them a platform to allow them to understand more about the living cycles of one of the most active buying segments in our economy.<br />
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You may be a skeptic or a naysayer, but, as the saying goes, "The train has already left the station." when it comes to the advent of the "internet of things." Nest is just another one of a growing segment of things which are connected to the larger electronic network we all live in. <br />
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Will these 'things' make our lives better than before? Will they provide more security, convenience or are they just part of the trappings of the social force of consumerism's "I Want That..." which pervades our every waking moment? I for one hope it becomes a transparent part of the infrastructure which allows our homes and offices to operate more efficiently without threatening our lives or well being. (<a href="http://qz.com/166473" target="_blank">Slate article</a>)<br />
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Those of us on the scary edge of integrated technology are urging us to leverage technology to help keep tighter control of our use of energy and water. The Nest is a good example of that technology in a segment of energy use which is fortunately shrinking each year, namely the residential energy sector. I haven't seen the most recent numbers, but all of us know every new home built is significantly more efficient, some claiming to be over 50% more so than homes built just 10 years ago or less. <br />
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So, even if you won't go out and buy a Nest soon, Google's 3.2 Billion bet is a strong indicator at least some of your friends and neighbors will be.<br />
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Chime in with your thoughts and let's get a conversation going, that is if you dare.<br />
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<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is a continuing conversation about the strings of connections in our built environment we live in. </span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-26911723839258695872013-12-12T21:00:00.000-07:002014-01-17T08:22:14.789-07:00Googlizing the AEC Industry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ4dT83YYSf1I644mOSpS_NXSYPeKTSs246kx6P5CbVOXFaB0v4VHFBW3NrBsuKA9_5a89Vk-stImhA5FCthS-M-MQcYu_Iy4Zp5hy72Nl6qsxRi_F1qKqzHbJhlJpDmLR0WgUNsOkYCl4/s1600/Breaking+Down+Silos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ4dT83YYSf1I644mOSpS_NXSYPeKTSs246kx6P5CbVOXFaB0v4VHFBW3NrBsuKA9_5a89Vk-stImhA5FCthS-M-MQcYu_Iy4Zp5hy72Nl6qsxRi_F1qKqzHbJhlJpDmLR0WgUNsOkYCl4/s200/Breaking+Down+Silos.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></div>
<h2>
IPD-BIM and SMART Culture Launches AEC Industry to New Levels </h2>
I recently posted an article "<a href="http://goo.gl/Gyc8L0" target="_blank">Googlizing the AEC Industry</a>" on our NoSilos.com site outlining the basis of a new series of live seminar and workshop events to be held in 2014 and 2015. In keeping with our goal of breaking down silos of information and operation within companies and project, we are offering a full two-year training effort called "<a href="http://collaborativeconstruction.blogspot.com/2013/12/bimx-googlizes-everything-in-knowledge.html" target="_blank">The Smart Built Culture</a>" to transform those who attend this series. There will be other webinar and free website information and presentations to inform our readership about these resources and presentations so, even if you can't make the live events, you will be able to get some of the benefits of our research and experience over the past ten years in this emerging business model.<br />
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Are you ready to turn the failures of past projects into successes. Or at the very least, turn what you hoped would would be new project delivery advances which didn't produce the results you wanted, into reality? If you are ready to become part of the leadership vanguard effecting permanent change in the AEC and Owner Operator or Owner Equity Holder sectors, then you need to stay tuned and watch for the announcements for the first seminars.<br />
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A Worldwide Series</h3>
We are planning for this to be a worldwide effort with early support from the UK and Australia as well as the US and Canada means this will be a worldwide tour of powerful and insightful learning for Owners, Equity Holders, Lenders, Insurers, Builders, Supply Chain partners and the Design communities. Seats will be limited in each location, so when the announcements come, make sure you grab your seats quickly. Until then, remember Collaboration is the Glue of Success . Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-44160731138029478802013-11-08T16:03:00.000-07:002014-01-17T08:22:35.975-07:00"ick" Factor of Recycled Water...Just Get Over It-NowSome of you know I live in the desert SW, specifically in Cochise County, AZ. We are officially in an extended drought, like most of our neighbors in NM, CO, NV and CA. All of us share the larger watersheds of the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers. This year we have seen warnings that flows in the Colorado watershed will be restricted for the lower Colorado River. Tucson recently met their recharge goals ahead of time, but now we are facing a reduced allocation from the Colorado, which means the recharge rate in coming months will likely be reduced, just when we are getting this water supply thing in hand.<br />
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Look at Orange County, CA. they have a recharge program similar to Tucson, but with some differences. They look at reusing more of their water than we do. While AZ has some of the most innovative greywater legislation, cities like Tucson are just beginning to use that legislation. Industrial cooling water is often potable water, but these closed systems don't really need potable water, greywater would work just as well yet few large cooling installations use this kind of water.<br />
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The specter of reusing water for most folks seems unthinkable, but we are already are reusing the water, we just let the earth filter the water from the Central Arizona Project, which originates from the Colorado. We pump out the water after the earth filters it. Yet this takes time and the ability for us to recharge that water over and over contains a lot of loss through evaporation. If we begin to look at some of the programs being put in place by municipalities and watershed regions where direct reprocessing of waste water to potable water is providing significant amounts of water for these service areas.<br />
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Could we, as residents of a continuing drought plagued area, become one of the leading innovators of water management and use? Maybe, yet, it appears today we continue to repeat the same wasteful actions we've been taking for centuries, in spite of the real possibility of extending the livelihoods of the residents of the Santa Cruz River valley by learning how to conserve and reuse the basis of life. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-884583029535843122013-11-02T14:45:00.001-07:002014-01-17T08:23:18.347-07:00BIM mandates ... Is Snake Oil not far behind?Many of you know I'm a very strong proponent of Building Information Modeling for many reasons, but when I start seeing government mandates for public works projects I have to take pause. Why? Well frankly after being involved with several GSA projects here in the US for remodeling, repurposing and new construction, I've not seen the GSA leverage the reality of BIM in their life-cycle use and maintenance.<br />
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What happened? I thought what we were doing was going to make a long term difference in the cost of operations for our government, but as I dug deeper, I found the operations folks didn't have the appropriate tools to take advantage of the products we delivered to them. Further, they didn't know if they would ever get the tools to leverage our work for their benefit.<br />
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So we go to recent days and the recent developments in Europe and Great Brittan regarding their new BIM mandates. My good friend and college James Salmon recently posted an <a href="http://collaborativeconstruction.blogspot.com/2013/11/sovereign-power-and-built-environment.html" target="_blank">article on the topic</a>. I think James only touched on the tip of this iceberg. The unintended consequences and unrealized goals are significant and, in my humble estimate, will likely do more to slow the real utilization of BIM-based design and documentation after completion of the buildings and projects they represent.<br />
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So are these government led mandates more snake oil than not? I hope not, but there is a significant risk here for more oil than substance, as evidenced by the US GSA examples. Yes there are a few well documented examples in the public but there are so many more which will never realize the published benefits proclaimed. What is the solution? Honestly, I'm not entirely sure, but there are solutions much easier to implement today than before so the owners can leverage the value of the document models into their daily operations. Fortunately, there are software solutions on the horizon which will help us realize the dream of BIM. In addition, I would hope we see the realization of the better delivery mechanism using integrated teams to further leverage the power of electronic modeling methods. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-85428163366113809292013-08-03T13:20:00.000-07:002014-01-17T08:25:06.677-07:00Formula 1, Babies and Buildings A String of Connected PossibilitiesA recent Ted Talk Peter van Manen of Mclaren electronics visits the possibilities of taking the thousands of data points of a Formula 1 car and applying them to to a pediatric intensive care ward. I applaud the inventiveness of the folks at Mclaren for taking a system which helps the most competitive motor sportscars perform at the highest level, to increase the survival of babies in their most fragile time of life.<br />
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As I listened to the presentation by Mr. van Manen I was intrigued to think if we monitored buildings with the same level of density as a Formula 1 or Indy car what would we learn about the interdependencies of the systems of the buildings we create. While racing teams build a new car for each season and then continually refine the car with new parts over the racing season, buildings aren't tuned to the same level of razor edged performance. But how could buildings benefit from the clouds of information such systems create and how could they be built to allow for more constant upgrading to increase performance?<br />
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While the real-time streams help teams during the race, the real benefit to the teams is the pattern analysis of different systems interacting and the stories they tell about the performance of the vehicle. Patterns of interaction which warn of impending failure. Today there is a distinct possibility of converting buildings from acting like consuming appliances to being a cooperating, interdependent network of producers of power and electricity. But to accomplish this task will require a nervous system at the level used in the Formula 1 auto racing business. <br />
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So while we are using the continuous monitoring of and using real-time analysis of the data to forecast future performance of both machines and mankind, we might also be thinking of applying the same ideas to buildings to raise their performance levels, extend their lives and provide greater comfort and safety all at the same time.<br />
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See related article about <a href="http://mystringlinks.blogspot.com/2014/01/google-and-your-eyes-round-2.html" target="_blank">Google Contacts</a> <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://embed.ted.com/talks/peter_van_manen_how_can_formula_1_racing_help_babies.html" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="560"></iframe><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is a continuing chapter in the interrelationships of discovery and application of technology and the built environment. The suggested connections and links between seemingly different applications can open new possibilities as a String of knowledge to make our lives better. </span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-28672924237130375142013-07-30T18:10:00.000-07:002014-01-17T08:28:21.668-07:00Hospitals and a Barcalounger?? What happened to my hospital?As an ex-CIO of a small healthcare insurance company. I remember attending some of the earliest conferences on the future of healthcare informatics beginning in 1984. The big discussion was the EMR or electronic medical record and privacy being implemented by HIPPA. Today you hardly go in any sizable clinic or community hospital without having some information collected about your health status which is stored in a form of and EMR. Even my small-town MD uses an Ipad to take notes for her records about my health and to look up information while we talk about a health issue. No she isn't one of those 'just out of school' MD's but in her 60's and ready to retire. So EMR's are in use and here to stay as they take on many different guises. <a href="http://mystringlinks.blogspot.com/2014/01/google-and-your-eyes-round-2.html" target="_blank">UPDATE: Google announces diabetes monitoring with contacts</a><br />
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Now an MD makes what many might call a rather bold statement that the future may not have any hospitals as we know them today. Yes, that's right. He sees hospitals of the future as procedure and trauma centers. Their use as a checkup and diagnostic centers would largely be relegated to home settings. Diagnostic equipment has gotten more and more compact and inexpensive so it is becoming more and more likely that blood pressure, heart rate, temperature and even oxygen levels and brain functioning can be monitored with portable, monitoring equipment which is hardly as intrusive as a watch or eyeglasses, or even as proximity measuring devices without any contact with your body.<br />
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<a href="http://www.hhnmag.com/hhnmag/HHNDaily/HHNDailyDisplay.dhtml?id=8200007622&goback=%2Egde_2825070_member_261679923" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuSeHc7jxCl18fQBWODrVB_3qNmtwE40WzHf2B_QiAqWfM9lcm1K3m7zy2Sq8IP0cR2Z7Ct8_UmiYK1k2FxxmYOIHVzCzICCW3xY_qg6f_WumuP5eN-MuL60W15C-YxOZw8nvLX3WXU3wj/s320/NoHospitalsIntro.jpg" height="183" width="320" /></a>So Dr. Topol thinks the change of hospitals from wards to procedure centers will be a progressive change over time. And I would agree. Back in the 80's some of us in the IT data center world postulated about this kind of delivery for a number of diagnostic, recovery and long-term monitoring situations now needing hospitals. For many procedures the hospital stays are getting shorter and shorter, knee and hip replacements only recover for about three or four days maximum and full bypass recoveries are getting shorter and shorter with less invasive and traumatic ortho and microscopic procedures.<br />
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Where does that leave us in the AEC world. Well if you think about in some related terms, the design of buildings are being emulated in a virtual world now. Online there are<br />
design tools which allow you to see what your new sofa or kitchen will look like with different color and style changes immediately. Moving from the preliminary to final design and fabrication stages from online design tools can and is being done now without any paper documents being created at all, even for the contractual side of the service.<br />
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So who's to say what could be possible in even three years from now? In some situations, design, fabrication, delivery, assembly and finishout with final startup of a building from the scale of a home to at least small commercial structures could take the same form of delivery as your Barcalounger order on line.<br />
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And the long-term monitoring of buildings built with sensors which help regulate interior comfort and utility are getting very inexpensive and easier to connect and implement. Mere $'s a piece, rather than $50 to $100 apiece from a couple of years ago. And using a simple smartphone access method to track and control the performance of your space. Not to mention letting you know when something is not working right and if a repair needs to be done.<br />
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So while we might need fewer and fewer large hospital centers, as our buildings we live in augment our lives in ways which increases our personal health. It's not so far fetched to think buildings are going to be much more responsive to our needs,. We already have the technology to do this, all that is missing is the will to implement those technologies in a sound and acceptable manner.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: x-small;">This installment of Strings, Connections and Links looks at the connections and strings of influence between the changing modalities of business delivery in the medical and AEC and AECOFM worlds. It is part of a larger conversation about the Built Environment and changing business in our world.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0Benson, AZ, USA31.9678611 -110.2945174000000231.7522046 -110.61724090000001 32.1835176 -109.97179390000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-1076211470781721592013-07-23T00:53:00.000-07:002013-07-23T00:53:00.712-07:00Is 57% waste real in delivery of projects in the Built Environment?
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<strong>What is the highest portion of waste in construction projects?</strong></div>
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It appears that rework tops the list. The data show that rework often has more than one cause. A recent CII study called "A Guide to Construction Rework Reduction" reveals that the biggest contributor to rework, at 25.4%, is scheduling, followed by issues related to materials and equipment (19%), design and engineering (14.6%) and instruction/monitoring (14.5%). Cutting costs too much can also drive rework. To save money, for example, some architects and engineers use old designs or templates for new projects, and those designs may have problems that were fixed on a previous job but remain in the original design and are passed along to a new one.</div>
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At the beginning of this year a conversation began between myself and collaboration principles of NoSilos.com. The reports from the Building SMART Alliance and the Construction Institute and others have been purporting A huge percentage of waste in our industry. While I cringe at the huge numbers, the reality is a lot of that number is infrastructure costs which are inflated due to the litigious nature of our business. Examples such as insurance, performance bonding and financing directly increase the cost due to the risky nature of the current methods we use to deliver Built Environment projects. So eliminating these excessive costs will be difficult until lenders, insurers and risk assessment folks change their policies to favor less risky arrangements.<br />
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That said, the Cll study cited in the ENR article gives us a glimpse behind the numbers from yet another perspective. The study points out that rework, aka failure that manifests itself at the tail end of a project, is spawned by many different failure mechanisms. Bad schedules, materials, equipment, design, execution, supervision etc. etc. account for rework BUT most rework arises from more than one failure mechanism. Further, rework is merely the visible tip of the iceberg. The real failure points lie submerged and ignored.<br />
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If necessity is the mother of invention then crisis is the father of failure. And we see the father of failure sowing wild oats all over! And let us count the ways:
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<li> RFI's</li>
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Energy</div>
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Re-work</div>
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Waste removal</div>
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<li><div>
Poor site logistics</div>
</li>
<li><div>
Over priced construction materials</div>
</li>
<li><div>
Over priced construction equipment
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</li>
<li>Poor delivery coordination</li>
<li>and more, more, more.....</li>
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At NoSilos.com we have a metric we use called ROF or Return on Failure. Sort of like the Return on Investment metric known in the financial world, but in reverse. The value of failure compounded over time creates its own wave of increased cascade of failure.
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So how much can be reduced. Past experience shows a possible reduction on privately funded projects of at least 10% and more likely around 15% when we used a modestly integrated design and delivery process not even close to true IPD process. The key to these numbers was a combination of great communication, clear goals and some judicious use of technology to help make the process a bit easier. </div>
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The bottom line, from our perspective, is that waste and inefficiency are known realities by key stakeholders in every sector of the economy regardless of their willingness to admit to the presence of the waste. We bring solutions to identify the differences between uncontrollable and controllable waste. What our clients do to reduce those costs is up to them. There is a vast opportunity for every company to reduce their ROF and increase their ROI to levels not seen before. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0Benson, AZ 85602, USA32.1500959 -110.3785437999999930.425484399999995 -112.9603308 33.8747074 -107.79675679999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-82541038556939836622013-07-15T22:06:00.000-07:002013-07-15T22:06:40.779-07:00The five words that can swing a meeting in your favourThis post is taken from an article found on www.Techrepublic.com. While an IT-centric publication, there are often gems to mine and harvest and this is one such post. It's been in my holding folder for a while and it seemed time to use it.<br />
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Who wouldn't want to find a set of magic words that could swing momentum to your point of view in a meeting? When I saw the title, like you, I wanted to find out more. But instead of a treatise of discovery all I saw was a brief review of some academic research gleaned from listening to hours of recorded meetings. Actually they had used machines to help them wade through the morass of spoken word to glean the short, but important results.<br />
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Sure it was important to see the results of their initial work, but more importantly the results were augmented by technology being an enabler. Finding that the five words were “yeah, give, start, meeting” and “discuss” was astounding to me. "Yeah" is a power word, what you say? It's such a common word, but apparently it does have more power in bringing people together.<br />
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So, what's the "take away" for those of us in the Built Environment business? For me it was we need to always be on the lookout for new and unexpected tools to help us discover the hard questions which seem so far beyond our abilities. Much like the linguistics, we are on the cusp of continuing to discover how more complex and pervasive data sources can make our lives more approachable and even better than before. Some call this the advent of "Big Data" but I think it's more fundamental and part of who we are as humans. Ever questioning the everyday to know why something works which seems unexplainable.<br />
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So keep your senses tuned and you are likely to find a serendipitous even happen right before your eyes. And don't forget, "Collaboration <em>is</em> the glue of success."<br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">www.techrepublic.com/blog/career/the-five-words-that-can-swing-a-meeting-in-your-favour/5047</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">By Nick Heath</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">June 25, 2013, 6:27 AM PDT</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;"><br /></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">Takeaway: Frustrated your ideas go unheard in meetings? Academics have identified the five words successful managers use to win backing for their proposals.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">Everybody’s sat in a meeting where they felt like they were talking but nobody was listening.</span></span><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;"><br /></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">But what if there were a sure fire way to get your colleagues to take notice? Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management examined what language is most likely to win over peers when used in meetings.</span></span><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;"><br /></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">These were “yeah, give, start, meeting” and “discuss”.</span></span><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;"><br /></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">The word may ‘yeah’ seems surprising as a persuasive word, but, said professor Cynthia Rudin, “when we looked at the way people were using it, we found they were using it to show agreement with something that someone else previously said. Perhaps if you frame a suggestion as if it were in agreement with others, it’s more likely to be accepted.”</span></span><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;"><br /></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">While ‘yeah’ was most frequently used to garner approval, ‘meeting’ was most often successfully used to shut down discussion of a topic, she said.</span></span><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;"><br /></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">“For instance, someone might say, ‘Maybe this is something for the next meeting,’ as a way of gently moving the topic onward without causing offence. That suggestion was almost always accepted,” she said.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">“We’re just at the beginning of finding ways to use machine learning to produce tools for more efficient meetings. Since everyone wants their ideas accepted, it’s worth considering word choice in proposals. You don’t want to undermine your idea by not using the right language,” said Rudin.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> This is another installment of collection of thoughts and reflections about how the Built Environment affects our lives. </span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0Benson, AZ 85602, USA32.1500959 -110.3785437999999930.425484399999995 -112.9603308 33.8747074 -107.79675679999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-43719239447736205312013-06-26T03:00:00.000-07:002013-06-26T08:55:32.043-07:00The Minnillieum Generation - How will they carry on the responsible development of our Built Environment?Last week Market Watch, a online service of the Wallstreet Journal published another article in their "10 most" series. This time my local newsrag carried this installment so I wandered over the the WSJ site to see what others were saying about the article entitled, "<a href="http://goo.gl/2qAH5" target="_blank">10 things millennials won’t tell you</a>". Believe you me, there was plenty being said, from both the Baby Boomer perspective as well as from others of the article's targeted audience.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://survey.telefonica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/infographic_meet_millennial_leaders1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_CqHri4zC3b4T8_FQSVZ9HgZtYIGlzCXyUuv-o7iGJT3qum38aoZ9taXN7YKQi4IDeQ0V95tD8ZIz1ttwvBsQ6wJIvAxfGfPoa5suiXDBDBucFpsYD1nfPyTzGdujLLjf6tAfeCTHhR5N/s1600/MilllennialLeaders.jpg" title="Click to see full infographic" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to See Full Infographic for Millennial Leaders</td></tr>
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While I belong to the praised and maligned Baby Boomer generation, I am also curious about what kind of legacy our successors the Millennials or Generation Y as they are often referred to, are likely to leave behind. Being described as self-absorbed and ambitious. Their job skills and office etiquette being called into questions and even their ability to communicate outside the realms of Twitter and Facebook have given them a certain stigma which many of those in my generation who hold the strings of corporate governance, find difficult to deal with. Yet for all this generalization in the article there are always the exception to the generalizations and those exceptions shine all the brighter for the contrast of their more generalized partners.<br />
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What I'm wondering about is how will those who are coming up continue the legacy of understanding we must take a more pragmatic and responsible position on the environment which sustains us. Winnow through the morass of hype, misinformation and bias foisted on us daily by the media. A cacophony of voices from every stripe and type straining to have their voice heard. Our connected world provides the platform for these voices in a way never before possible. Our children grew up with the beginnings of this Information Revolution and are far more comfortable in it than even those of us who helped bring it about. How will this web of strings and connections effect them and their ability to deal with problems of higher complexity than we or our parents ever thought of to begin with?<br />
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The info graphic above is taken from a recent <a href="http://survey.telefonica.com/globalreports" target="_blank">survey done by Telefonica</a> about the perceptions of Millennial's about themselves and the confidence they have in their generation to meet the challenges they see.
With much in the balance and critical decisions to be made, I wonder how this next generation will respond to the demands placed on them?
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">This reflection is a continuing conversation of the related connections of thoughts and how they link together and form a web of networked strings reflecting the complexity of our current society and its' relationship to the Built Environment.</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-70004540827848138872013-06-23T11:47:00.000-07:002013-06-23T11:47:21.744-07:00Utility of the Future (UTOF) "Water Water where is it? There's not a drop to drink!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimnCc_8qTK4dOCbmQ5Otw0QkOiRu8JodXpN0nvysZdn7AdPc-r7DpeDsM-algnuQSRBZVEPICkAtkh-NMPe68tbkMShniIDgnMXXXAFGXUxbvaq08yfpW33NCwFh71NzMoSG8UgbGGyN_E/s1600/DrinkingWater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimnCc_8qTK4dOCbmQ5Otw0QkOiRu8JodXpN0nvysZdn7AdPc-r7DpeDsM-algnuQSRBZVEPICkAtkh-NMPe68tbkMShniIDgnMXXXAFGXUxbvaq08yfpW33NCwFh71NzMoSG8UgbGGyN_E/s320/DrinkingWater.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">A couple of months ago a </span><a href="http://www.nacwa.org/images/stories/public/2013-01-31waterresourcesutilityofthefuture-final.pdf" style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">report was issued entitled </a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> “The Water Resources Utility of the Future: A Blueprint for Action.” was recently released by a coalition of organizations: </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), and the Water Environment Federation (WEF).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Article linked from Water Efficiency Blog. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">http://www.waterefficiency.net/WE/Blogs/1619.aspx</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Some of you know from reading previous posts on this blog, I have contended that diversified water treatment is as important as the diversified renewable energy movement which has been afoot for about the last decade or more. In my mind, it is unfortunate we have not paid attention to the underlying infrastructure and social connection good drinking water has on our communities. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">The EPA is warning us that in less than a decade or so, there will be significantly more cities in dire straits to provide safe drinking water in their communities. This report echoes this call to actions. Our current state rules on water production and the often arcane water rights laws which change from state to state often cause difficulties for the emerging, smaller scale treatment options available. Greywater rules are one other point of confusion where it is actually illegal to use this water at all and in most other areas it is severely regulated as a resource. Here in the desert SW we have a more open mind to the value of water, but only slightly. We may have some of the more forward-looking legislation in Arizona, but the public is not educated about the significant impacts these laws could have on our severe drought conditions. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Using some of the recent filtration and treatment technologies which began in the NASA science labs back over 25 years ago we are beginning to see commercially viable solutions which can take briny water and turn it into higher quality water than found in our local utility pipes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Yet setting water quality aside it is often more of a quantity problem and here is where the leaky pipe syndrome is raising it's ugly head. Some local utilities have a leakage rate over 30% in some network areas which is a huge burden for the overall system. Fixing far-flung and aging networks is expensive and so are put off until they go beyond being a nuisance to a health hazard. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">How will a diversified water treatment and production effort change the UTOF? Instead of larger, hard to manage and maintain, should we be be looking at smaller, more diversified and dispersed treatment and production solutions? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">UTOF report indicates we need a significant change in thinking and implementation of both the treatment and production sides of water. With more and more communities facing difficult water supply and treatment issues, these questions aren't for the future, but for us to grapple with now. To be sure they are difficult, complex, wicked problems and take the efforts of entire regions and the stakeholders of multiple communities to arrive at possible strategies and solution paths. No one process or solution will be a "silver bullet" in any community. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">This is another part to the connections of thoughts about the Built Environment and the elements surrounding the efforts we take as humans to change and shape the environment we work in. A string of ideas, in this instance relating to clean water, the environment and sustaniability of our communities and a possible picture of the water utility of the future UTOF.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-46122333524759243532013-06-17T10:09:00.001-07:002013-06-17T10:11:12.257-07:00Lean Startups and the Flow of Value-A lesson for the AECO SectorDave West recently wrote an article in <a href="http://projectsatwork.com/">ProjectsAtWork.com</a>'s June issue that I immediately identified with. In fact he almost writes a parallel post to one of my original posts which is also one of the all-time favorite posts here on this blog. <a href="http://mystringlinks.blogspot.com/2012/04/bim-and-xpm-made-marriage-part-1.html" target="_blank">BIM & XPM-A Made Marriage</a>.<br />
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Dave is currently the Chief Product Officer at Tasktop and one of the foremost industry experts on software development and deployment. He has helped advance many modern software development processes, including the Unified process and Agile methods. As such, he knows of what he talks and it is a strong validation of the work I discovered somewhat by accident and happy circumstances over ten years ago.<br />
<a href="http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/articles/278943.cfm" target="_blank">Please read Dave's article here</a><br />
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Dave's mention of the Lean Startup movement, that is going through companies right now lead him to some interesting conclusions. As a mentor at our local <a href="http://tucson.gangplankhq.com/" target="_blank">Gangplank chapter in Tucson</a> and having been through several Lean Launchpad Startup workshops, I can attest to the parallels which Dave highlights. For the real focus on the Lean Launchpad is creating value and validation of a new idea using the minimum of effort to seek the greatest return. In a Lean Launchpad we don't go into big elaborate tests, but use simple tests to determine if an idea has merit in the marketplace. For me that was natural. I have been doing that in design practice for quite a while. Tweaking the context was easy for me to see how focusing on creating the greatest value using the least expensive means possible gave way to determine where the maximum effort should be spent as an idea matured and became validated.<br />
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How did all this resonate with me? I started using a variation of XPM and Agile back about 10 years ago in the design profession of architecture. The close parallels of SW development and working in the built environment design are quite scary. For that reason, and that it focuses on the value stream of information, the above rationale delivers very good results.<br />
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On my early journeys in this endeavor to find a better way to practice design I looked for ideas which would bring the design process together more efficiently. Since I'm not a purist on either the lean or agile side I just looked for what worked well and could be repeated over and over with consistent results. Creating a flow of information which delivered the value needed for timely decisions became our mantra. It reduced rework, it focused on the issue(s) at hand and set all others aside and above all was guided by the principle of keeping the end goal in mind.<br />
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Often, the project's end goal was modified along the way due to inconsistencies in assigning value in the beginning. But that is to be expected, since not all the value is known before a project starts. Discovering that new areas of value harvesting made more sense than staying with original ideas we were able to keep the project expectations in line and the Owner happy. More times than not, the final results were better than anyone would have imagined going into the project.<br />
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Who was responsible for delivery, everyone. If someone working on the project did not see it was their project to deliver value, they often were removed or isolated out to minimize their damage to the rest of the producing team. <br />
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As you can see, adaptability, collaboration, transparency, autonomy and focus on value were key components in our success. <br />
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Always remember "Collaboration is the Glue of Success"<br />
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<a href="http://nosilos.com/">NoSilos.com</a><br />
<a href="http://collaborativeconstruction.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Collaborative Construction Blog</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #999999;">This article is a continuation of conversations about how delivery of professional services in the Built Environment can change the way business is done. This article focuses on the change in focus from functional activity to delivery of value in every action and the need for all participants to own their part of the project delivery. It is a continuing String of thought with connections to project management, project delivery methods, change management and the continuing evolution of business delivery in our marketplace. </span></span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-15947556457074386002013-06-16T11:06:00.001-07:002013-06-16T11:06:13.703-07:00Bullitt Center Accepts Living Building Challenge 2.0Some of you may know of the <a href="http://living-future.org/lbc" target="_blank">Living Building Challenge</a> it seeks to leverage existing technologies in a way which combine to make a building completely self-sufficient water and energy centers and at the same time increase livability in it's adjacent area. While the Challenge is a rating system for buildings, it is much more. Embarking on a Living Building Challenge is also becoming an active advocate for the process and how it changes the environment around the building.<br />
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The first Commercial building to begin to achieve this audacious challenge is the <a href="http://bullittcenter.org/" target="_blank">Bullitt Center</a>, home of the International Living Future Institute, creator of the Living Building Challenge. So they are not only encouraging others, but demonstrating that their challenge is attainable and viable in a commercial setting.<br />
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Unlike other rating systems for a building to be granted and maintain their status as a Living Building Challenge building they must demonstrate with measurable and verifiable results that they do perform as they are designed to. These are exciting projects for those of us who contend that buildings do not have to be "appliances" plugged into infrastructure as consumers, but could and should be at least neutral to the supporting infrastructure for power and water and hopefully positive contributors for power and treated water. Truly, a community of buildings meeting the Living Building Challenge, could survive and sustain livability without huge central water treatment and power generation systems or even large surface storm water management systems. Buildings and their attendant support systems would be cross linked together to create local eco-systems of the Built Environment which were neutral to the surrounding environment or even positive in terms of water management and air quality.<br />
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Take some time looking at the <a href="http://living-future.org/lbc" target="_blank">Living Building Challenge</a> website and the resources below and I think you will begin to see some of the possibilities for our future. <br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullitt_Center" target="_blank">Wikipedia Article on Bullitt Center</a><br />
<a href="http://earthfix.opb.org/communities/article/seattles-bullitt-center-ready-to-debut-as-worlds-g/" target="_blank">Seattle’s Bullitt Center: Ready To Debut As World’s Greenest Office Building</a><br />
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<a href="http://Ashoka Fellow Jason McLennan on the Future of Green Building" target="_blank">Ashoka Fellow Jason McLennan on the Future of Green Building</a> [video]<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This article is one of a continuing series about the Built Environment and the sustainable design results which can be achieved when integrated design delivers buildings which are self sufficient in the energy and water they need to operate. It is a connection of strings of interest and links of connection which lead to a greater understanding and the possibilities available to us today. <a href="http://nosilos.com/">NoSilos.com</a></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-45313927204571950962013-06-14T08:45:00.002-07:002013-06-14T08:45:33.256-07:00Top 10 Renewable Energy Utilities in the US<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijctZVTqrbx4svp1jOF8mkTQ8IlDcrOESsPODd9kmHVmkRYDvgzcGHpm3tfLcv7Fu2wkdwZvx6SQTnEw5VuDcEawEZ2qdtEpVqbZ0AwSQXZobVWuNygmUne4GpFA5OPLer5aoPMYdKDn6G/s1600/Pylon_ds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijctZVTqrbx4svp1jOF8mkTQ8IlDcrOESsPODd9kmHVmkRYDvgzcGHpm3tfLcv7Fu2wkdwZvx6SQTnEw5VuDcEawEZ2qdtEpVqbZ0AwSQXZobVWuNygmUne4GpFA5OPLer5aoPMYdKDn6G/s320/Pylon_ds.jpg" width="157" /></a></div>
Electric Power and Light just published the National Renewal Energy Labs (NREL) <a href="http://goo.gl/uJ6q8" target="_blank">Top Ten list for Utilities</a> selling renewable energy. Some familiar names continue to be on the list and some new names appear. One surprising ranking was the change in ranking of the top utility with renewable energy sales (megawatt hours /year), Portland General Electric (Oregon) overtook Austin Energy in Austin, Texas, in 2012, selling the largest amount of renewable energy in the nation through its voluntary green power program.<br />
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What I found interesting in this article is the wide geographical representation of utilities all over the US. While these utilities sell only a small fraction of the entire renewable energy sold in the US it is noteworthy that these programs are representative of volunteer programs where customers specifically elect to purchase renewable energy.<br />
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<a href="http://goo.gl/uJ6q8" target="_blank">Here's the entire article</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-78981949885557220212013-06-11T10:01:00.000-07:002013-06-11T10:01:34.153-07:00Texas Revises Legislation to allow more CoGeneration - Designers AwakenIf you don't know much about the power system in Texas they are about the only state in the 48 which has their own power grid isolated from their neighbors and it's been more blessing than curse to them. They don't worry about neighboring regional power glitches creating problems for them. Their energy policy is obviously driven by the oil and gas reserves they have which generates nearly all the power in Texas. But the folks in Texas aren't blind to the issues petrol-powered energy has and has a pretty aggressive policy to see a diversified energy production profile for the state.<br />
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Recently the legislators did something pretty bold for them, they lessened regulation on CoGeneration facilities. You see the Utility Commission has previously looked at these facilities as small utilities and as such it hampered the development of significant CoGen power where it could really help the grids in TX.<br />
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The Texas Legislature recently passed House Bill 2049, which removes regulatory barriers and improves the business climate for cogeneration facilities by clarifying language in the Texas Utility Code. "…this policy change will help the entire Texas grid by relieving grid congestion, increasing grid capacity and reducing the amount of water used in the generation of electricity," said Paul Cauduro, executive director of the Texas Combined Heat and Power Initiative.<br />
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See an article on this new legislation <a href="http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/new-law-removes-barriers-cogeneration/2013-06-09?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal" target="_blank">here</a> from Fierce Energy<br />
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So how does this tie into the issues surrounding the Built Environment and my interests expressed here? Well it's pretty simple. While PV power is nice, it is designed as an add-on system to normal operations and is by it's nature diurnal. CoGen isn't. GoGen systems are designed to recover waste energy and increase overall efficiency by using that waste heat to create more power. Too many times we don't look at our buildings in terms of their waste energy profile. How much energy are our buildings throwing away with single-pass heating and cooling and even the recapture of excess heat in the summer being exhaled from our buildings by cooling systems.<br />
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The important thing to realize here these systems have been around a long, long time and even today there are emerging technologies which can absorb more and more excess energy to be either stored and used later or recovered and used immediately to generate power. We do have the technology now, we can use commercially available systems which are designed from residential scale to large industrial complexes. The problem is we are so in love with the PV solar story we have likely forgot some basics of systems design along the way.<br />
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My challenge to building design and execution teams is get educated about CoGeneration and it's advantages and educate your client base to it's advantages and quick paybacks and long-term benefits. Our neighbors in Texas have decided CoGen makes sense for their power needs, maybe the rest of us should start looking at CoGen harder and push for easier regulation and implementation in our own back yards.<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0Benson, AZ 85602, USA32.1500959 -110.3785437999999930.425484399999995 -112.9603308 33.8747074 -107.79675679999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-52513115122266338952013-05-20T03:00:00.000-07:002013-05-20T03:00:01.807-07:00Infrastructure and AEC Possibilities "Fix It First"President Obama announced in his State of the Union Address we should be focusing on fixing the broken infrastructure elements in our country. Not long after President Obama's address the civil engineers announced our county only earned a D+ in infrastructure condition and performance. While a lot of focus has been on the roads and bridges our water systems are in deplorable condition. Many cities have pipes which leak almost 20% of their input back into the ground at a tremendous cost to rate payers. Electrical grids and telecommunication networks are aging and in rural communities are often among the oldest installations left in our country.<br />
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<a href="http://daily.sightline.org/2013/02/25/roads-why-fix-them-when-you-can-build-more/" target="_blank">Roads: Why Fix Them When You Can Build More?</a></h1>
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Democrats would rather build more than fix much of anything. Building new cost x times more than to fix what is already there. </div>
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<b><a href="http://www.protectivecoatings.com/news/?fuseaction=view&id=9200" target="_blank">Obama Details ‘Fix it First’ Plan</a></b></h1>
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Cutting red tape, increasing private investment, and designating $40 billion for urgent repairs are the three cornerstones of President Obama's new plan for U.S. infrastructure.</div>
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Fleshing out the<a href="http://www.paintsquare.com/news/?fuseaction=view&id=9155&nl_versionid=2788" style="color: #3333cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> "Fix it First" plan</a> announced Feb. 12 in the State of the Union Address, the White House issued a Fact Sheet on Wednesday (Feb. 20) with more details of the proposal.</div>
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"Investing in infrastructure not only makes our roads, bridges, and ports safer and allows our businesses and workers to be as competitive as they need to be in the global economy; it also creates thousands of good American jobs that cannot be outsourced," according to "<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/20/fact-sheet-president-s-plan-make-america-magnet-jobs-investing-infrastru" style="color: #3333cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The President’s Plan to Make America a Magnet for Jobs by Investing in Infrastructure.</a>"</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-infrastructure-spending-budget-republicans-2013-2" target="_blank">Here's Barack Obama's Plan To Fix America's Crumbling Roads And Bridges</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">... </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">What remains unclear, however, is how the Obama administration plans to pay for this and other infrastructure initiatives that the President outlined in his State of the Union speech last month.</span></div>
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In a speech to the National Governors Association Monday, the President fleshed out additional details of the plan, announcing that his administration will create "regional teams" that will assist states in implementing infrastructure projects.</div>
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<a href="http://northiowatoday.com/2013/02/24/fact-sheet-the-presidents-plan-to-make-america-a-magnet-for-jobs-by-investing-in-infrastructure/comment-page-1/" target="_blank">Fact Sheet: The President’s Plan to Make America a Magnet for Jobs by Investing in Infrastructure</a></h1>
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White House fact sheet on infrastructure projects. </div>
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Finally, what appears to be a 'shot in the arm' for the basic needs for the country is only a temporary fix to a systemic problem. Costs of federal procurement is higher than any other roadway and infrastructure project type of its kind. Lower real value is produced per dollar spent than in any other kind of construction. While welcome to the larger infrastructure design and construction firms, smaller firms will have to scratch it out to gather their part of the pie. And when the pittance of 40 Billion is spent when we are really talking about over 1 Trillion in needs, the short-term fix will leave us with significant needs to deal with.<br />
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Call and write your federal legislators in both the House and Senate to use this as a starting shot in the arm for real wage growth in the country. While you are at it introduce them to the idea of integrated design and delivery to help each dollar go further. </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-56884838862963115212013-05-16T00:11:00.001-07:002013-05-16T00:11:09.717-07:00Top Five Most Read Articles at this blog.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7o62uIw4oBxxnDO0pVPdZLWpmReku7wXoH82qrvH3PMxkJfw9yamHJJEfCB_Z8NB2C3uLrWRiUbhTJiW0Jp-6iBBvwZCXlPODUJX3J8IIEgx4xDtgLtJI7B5wJGodyiugHrOJ7xzDXdHx/s1600/stats.jpg" /></div>
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Seems people over the past year were really interested in the lean topics but just as interesting three of the most popular articles came from pretty early on and all three were tied to BIM in some way. But one of my favorites about the Design Age is still there in the top five.</div>
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Feel free to chime in about your favorite.
Oh, and if there's something you would like to hear about more let me know that too.
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And thanks to everyone for your readership and support. </div>
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Andrew</div>
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Remember, "<em>Collaboration is the glue of success</em>."</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0Benson, AZ, USA31.9678611 -110.2945174000000231.7522046 -110.61724090000001 32.1835176 -109.97179390000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-18108664482955395572013-05-14T12:07:00.000-07:002013-05-14T12:07:46.175-07:00Why Do Projects Fail? - A contrarian POVEarlier today I came across an article entitled, "Why Do Projects Fail? - Learning how to avoid failure." An engaging topic to be sure. Especially for me, since I'm in the business of helping folks deliver successful projects and managing the change which often accompanies those projects.<br />
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Well the article rounded up the usual suspects of project requirements, losing focus, disengagement, impossible deliverables, the wrong deliverables, the wrong project statement, governance and poor implementation. Now I'm not going to debate the importance of everyone of the stated reasons in the article, but I am going to take issue with the basic premise of a project' existence. The single item above which get's closest to this idea is the 'wrong project statement.'<br />
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Project Statements and Their Assumptions</h2>
We begin a project with the best intentions in place. Thinking that it will deliver clear benefits to it's constituent users and make their lives better. But hold on a minute. Who asked the question about why this idea came about in the first place. Why did they think this was a good idea? Who is the real champion behind this idea and why are they interested? What is the failure surrounding this project's initiation? What is the value of that Failure? Even more importantly, what causes the failure in the first place? <br />
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Did you catch on the <em>Who, What When, Where, Why </em>theme. As a long-time problem solver both in the singular and collaborative group context, often I've found few, if any, of the above questions or others similar have been asked and seriously answered. In many cases the key question is about the failure surrounding the genesis of the project in the beginning. More than once when looked at closely, this failure value question gets to the heart of where the real solution lies and more than likely, the solution wasn't what people thought it should be.<br />
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So the assumptions made at the beginning of projects are more likely to contribute to the failure of a project simply because the problem statement is all wrong from the beginning. It is of no consequence if there was complete engagement, perfect execution and implementation; in the end the project will fail to survive because it serves no real purpose of delivers any significant value and will be abandoned.<br />
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I mention this not from the perspective of building projects so much as the processes we use to deliver projects. Often our efforts to make our businesses more effective only continues to contribute to the confusion and failure within and between organizations. We find ourselves chasing rabbits, ghosts and digging holes for no reason. All the ineffectual, "Stupid" stuff many of us deal with daily.<br />
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The Challenge</h2>
So the next time someone proposes a project, find out if it can stand the scrutiny of the Who, What, When, Where and Why sisters. If it does, then likely you are on the right path and success is more likely than if you don't.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #999999;">This is a continuing series of monographs and conversations about the Connections of ideas as Strings and Links of overlapping ideas dealing with project management, business management, business processes and project delivery.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #999999;">Remember "</span></span><em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #999999;">Collaboration is the Glue of Success."</span></span></em>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com0Benson, AZ 85602, USA32.1500959 -110.3785437999999930.4253789 -112.9603308 33.874812899999995 -107.79675679999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153562463600056232.post-90298675600555189272013-03-28T16:01:00.000-07:002013-03-28T16:01:00.204-07:00Rigidity in Institutions is harbinger of failure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Bw96bKRw5Gn_MVxjMiW5spLAHFUr1DRZyUqbgGBEN7IVic3cSJvVIrXFxL_br_V0X0pHYX1v3xEtEijkpOAh5cemLCz2DZJfhaTj7ktRm5BeGAHWfMYSXiG8uU8jVJrc_RwOeMeN_Fdg/s1600/AdminChecklist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Bw96bKRw5Gn_MVxjMiW5spLAHFUr1DRZyUqbgGBEN7IVic3cSJvVIrXFxL_br_V0X0pHYX1v3xEtEijkpOAh5cemLCz2DZJfhaTj7ktRm5BeGAHWfMYSXiG8uU8jVJrc_RwOeMeN_Fdg/s1600/AdminChecklist.jpg" /></a>My good friend James L. Salmon has a blog called <a href="http://collaborativeconstruction.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Collaborative Construction</a> I know some of you read, but for those of you who don't check out this link to his post entitled <a href="http://collaborativeconstruction.blogspot.com/2013/03/smartx-public-policy.html" name="1" style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.19444465637207px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">(SMART)X Public Policy?</a> While the article James refers to is interesting and on point to the medical profession, it is also a shade of foreboding in the Built Environment as well. As more and more public policy is enacted in the areas of building performance, emissions from the built environment, water purity, water usage and the like, we continually restrict the creativity of human minds and calcify the momentum we need to maintain to make the huge changes needed to create environments which are both environmentally and economically sustainable.<br />
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While legislation to improve air quality has seen some success, there is also abuse on both sides and this results in further draconian reaction from regulators, legislators and litigators. Like Professor Mead, the author of the cited post, points out, we need to refocus our efforts on getting the bloat out of policy and legislation and focus on more responsive means. The AEC industry needs to take note, we are already heavily regulated in the areas of building design performance, labor, material safety and job safety. The business does not need to bear more regulation for the sake of trying to be more responsive to the needs of society.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM5ctaUCIQdJY70DQ2cgf9EjOxjny_tWXJHrHAqaE1Z6tqOqRdAq3-nkcM17tLpEfU_fM0S_hsvvssLnQUJJKDwjcXI4KmnReXZPiEKQ_bNKp92rL0wzbXNf4tPfTYH8t9mYqVbVqLNq5_/s1600/money-rising-image-300x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM5ctaUCIQdJY70DQ2cgf9EjOxjny_tWXJHrHAqaE1Z6tqOqRdAq3-nkcM17tLpEfU_fM0S_hsvvssLnQUJJKDwjcXI4KmnReXZPiEKQ_bNKp92rL0wzbXNf4tPfTYH8t9mYqVbVqLNq5_/s200/money-rising-image-300x300.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
As an industry, we need to be more productive, innovative and responsive and supportive business relationships with a goal in mind to shed our old thinking for new relationships and better performance negating the need for more legislation and administrative oversight. Responsible change is less expensive for everyone concerned.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: x-small;">This is s continuing series of ideas based on Connections and Links which form Strings of knowledge related to the Built Environment and the issues surrounding project delivery and regulatory compliance. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04859435693999265491noreply@blogger.com1Benson, AZ 85602, USA32.1500959 -110.3785437999999930.425470899999997 -112.9603308 33.8747209 -107.79675679999998